1878 


1      I  MS:!; 

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mmm 

11- 


^^SlC^lA    S^^uo^cl^qAjotv^'v^ 


THE     EDUCATION     OF     DENTIHTs/lN     DISTINCTION 
— ^  FROM     DENTAL     EDUCATION. 


ADDRESS 


DELIVERED   BEFOKK    THE 


ASSACHUSETTS  DENTAL  SOCIETY, 


THIRTEENTH   ANNUAL   MEETING, 


DECEMBER  13,  1877 


Dr.    J.    II.  |kIDDER,    a.    B., 


OF    LAWin:N(  E. 


SALEM: 
PKINTED    AT   THE    SALEM    PRESS. 

1878. 


^\^' 


THE     EDUCATION      OF     DENTISTS     IN     DISTINCTION 
FROM     DENTAL     EDUCATION. 


ADDRESS 


DKMVEKED    I'.KFORK    THE 


Massachusetts  Dental  Society. 


TIIIRTEENTII   ANNUAL   MEETING, 


DECEMBER  13,  1877, 


Dii.    J.    H.    KIDDEK,    A.    B., 


OF    LAWRENCE. 


SALEM: 
rUINTKD    AT    TIIK    SALEM    PIIKSS. 

1878. 


I'KI.VTED  BY  ORDER  OF  TH?:  MASSACHUSETTS  DEXTAL  SOCIETY. 
J.  H.  BATCHELDER,  CUATRMAV,  EXECUTIVE  COMMITTEE. 


ADDRESS. 


•  Gentlemen  of  the  Massachusetts  Dental  Society : 

Being  elected  your  Orator,  for  this  our  Thirteenth 
Annual  Meeting,  I  have  chosen  as  a  subject  upon 
which  to  present  a  few  thoughts, — "The  Education 
of  Dentists,  in  distinction  from  Dental  Education." 
Much  has  been  written  within  the  last  few  years 
upon  the  subject  of  dental  education,  and  brought 
before  you  in  magazines  and  at  the  gatherings  of 
dental  societies,  till  the  theme  has  become  somewhat 
hackneyed.  We  have  been  disposed  to  boast  of  the 
progress  that  has  been  made,  and  to  laud  our  work 
and  our  profession  as  the  most  beneficent  that  ever 
blessed  mankind.  As  a  profession,  we  have  been 
rather  too  much  disposed  to  sound  our  own  praises, 
though  the  blast  has  not  as  yet  been  sufficiently 
powerful  to  attract  much  attention  from  the  other 
professions,  or  from  society  around  us.  Like  the 
parvenu  in  society  we  are  too  sensitive  in  regard  to 
our  professional  standing  (or  to  the  standing  of  our 
profession),  and  seek  to  command  by  self  assertion 
what  we  fear  society  will  not  accord  to  our  merits. 

When  I  analyze  the  condition  of  society  in  this 
present  ceiitury,^  it  seems  to  me  that  there  is  hardly 

(3) 


4 

any  such  thing  as  professional  standing,  which  may 
be  said  to  be  characteristic  of  any  of  the  so-called 
learned  professions.  Seventy-five  or  one  hundred 
years  ago,  the  lawyer,  the  doctor  and  the  minister, 
were  the  recipients  of  almost  all  the  literary  and 
scientific  culture  that  was  extant  in  American  so- 
ciety. They  constituted  an  intellectual  aristocracy, 
whose  right  to  rule  and  lead  in  society  was  unques- 
tioned. 

And  the  mere  being  a  member  of  one  of  these 
learned  professions,  was  a  passport  to  social  position, 
to  which  outsiders  could  not  hope  to  attain.  But  all 
of  that  has  passed  away;  and  this  phenomenon  is 
but  one  of  the  incidents  of  a  better  civilization.  The 
progress  of  general  culture,  from  the  time  of  the 
middle  ages  down  to  the  present  moment,  has  been 
so  universal  as  to  overthrow,  not  only  the  old  heredi- 
tary class  distinctions,  as  in  the  French  revolution, 
but  has  continued  its  levelling  up,  as  well  as  down, 
till  in  the  Northern  states,  at  least,  class  distinctions 
have  almost  entirely  disappeared.  De  Tocqueville, 
speaking  of  the  tendency  of  civiHzation  to  obliterate 
classes,  says :  "  The  various  occurrences  of  national 
existence  have  everywhere  turned  to  the  advantage 
of  equality;  all  men  have  aided  it  by  their  exertions; 
both  those  who  have  intentionally  labored  in  its  cause, 
and  those  who  have  sei^ved  it  unwittingly ;  those  who 
have  fought  for  it,  and  those  who  have  declared  them- 
selves its  opponents,  have  all  been  driven  along  in  the 


same  track ;  have  all  labored  to  one  end ;  some  igno- 
rantly,  and  some  unwillingly;  all  have  been  blind 
instruments  in  the  hand  of  God.  The  gradual  devel- 
opment of  the  principle  of  equality,  is,  therefore,  a 
providential  fact.  It  has  all  the  characteristics  of 
such  a  fact;  it  is  universal,  it  is  durable;  it  con- 
stantly eludes  all  human  interference ;  and  all  events, 
as  well  as  all  men,  contribute  to  its  progress."  These 
remarks  were  written  by  that  eminent  French  writer 
some  forty  years  ago,  in  regard  to  the  levelling  ten- 
dency of  all  events  throughout  civilized  Europe. 
History,  before  and  since  his  time,  has  proved  the 
sagacity  of  his  conclusions. 

And  if  they  are  true  in  Europe,  how  much  more 
true  are  they  in  our  own  country. 

In  France,  several  crowned  heads  have  disap- 
peared from  above  the  general  level,  and  a  republic 
now  rules  the  empire  of  the  Bonapartes.  In  our 
own  country,  the  late  war  has  raised  a  down  trodden 
and  enslaved  race  to  all  the  rights  of  citizens  of  a 
free  republic.  But  not  to  take  a  too  extended  view, 
•we  will  confine  our  attention  to  the  development  of 
society  immediately  about  us.  Free  as  the  society 
was  which  was  planted  here  by  our  puritan  ances- 
tors, still  many  of  the  old  English  ideas  of  rank  and 
gentility  were  brought  over  here,  and  took  root  for 
several  generations,  and  exerted  a  powerful  influence 
in  community.  Besides  the  intellectual  aristocracy 
of  the  lawyer,  the  doctor  and  the  minister,  there  was 


the  aristocracy  of  powder  and  queues,  cocked  hats 
and  broad  brims,  white  top  boots,  breeches  and  shoe- 
buckles,  which  were  the  marks  of  the  more  wealthy 
and  better  educated,  or  better  blood  than  the  common 
mass  of  community.  Goodrich,  in  his  ^^Recollec- 
tions of  a  Lifetime,"  speaks  of  that  age  of  respecta- 
bility, which,  according  to  him,  disappeared  during 
the  times  of  Jefferson,  and  the  rise  of  the  democratic 
party;  when  short  hair,  stove-pipe  hats,  and  panta- 
loons, were  substituted  for  the  more  picturesque  at- 
tire of  the  continentals. 

He  gives  a  quaint  anecdote  illustrating  society,  at 
that  time  in  its  transition  state. — "  About  this  time, 
there  was  in  the  eastern  part  of  Connecticut,  a  cler- 
gyman noted  for  his  wit.  One  summer's  day  as  he 
was  riding  along,  he  came  fo  a  brook.  Here  he 
paused  to  let  his  horse  drink.  Just  then  a  stranger 
rode  into  the  stream  from  the  opposite  direction,  and 
his  horse  began  to  drink  also.  The  animals  ap- 
proached, as  is  their  wont  under  such  circumstances, 
and  thus  brought  the  two  men  face  to  face.  ^  How 
are  you,  priest,'  said  the  stranger.  ^How  are  you, 
democrat^  said  the  parson.  ^How  do  you  know  I 
am  a  democrat,'  said  one.  ^  How  do  you  know  I  am 
a  priest,'  said  the  other.  ^  I  know  you  to  be  a  priest 
by  your  dress,'  said  the  stranger.  ^  And  I  know  you 
to  be  a  democrat  by  your  address,'  said  the  parson." 

The  old  federal  respectabilities  of  the  party  of 
"Washington  and  Hamilton,  were  thus  rudely  jostled 


by  the  young  and  vigorous  democracy,  and  soon  they 
and  their  traditions  were  numbered  among  the  things 
that  were,  though  some  remnants  of  their  influence 
are  still  seen  in  the  present  generation. 

A  few  of  us  with  gray  hairs  can  remember  when 
the  children  were  taught  to  salute  the  passing  stran- 
ger on  the  country  roadside  with  a  bow. 

And  the  traditions  of  the  former  standing  of  the 
learned  professions  are  floating  through  our  brains, 
when  we  speak  and  write  so  .much  of  th'e  com- 
manding influence  in  society  to  which  the  profession 
of  dentistry  is  entitled. 

It  is  true  that  the  law  gives  certain  institutions  the 
right  to  confer  certain  degrees  of  law,  medicine,  or 
theology  upon  individuals,  for  an  ascertained  profi- 
ciency in  the  profession  for  which  the  degree  is  con- 
ferred. But  society,  acting  in  its,  independent  ca- 
pacity, dubs  any  individual  with  any  title  that  suits 
its  humor;  and  any  individual  assumes  any  suffix  or 
prefix  to  his  name,  that  may  suit  his  ulterior  pur- 
poses. In  former  generations,  the  title  of  president, 
or  professor  in  Harvard  College,  would  have  been 
considered  too  sacred  for  profanation.  But  not 
many  years  ago,  in  the  city  of  my  residence,  I  was 
surprised  one  day  to  read  on  the  posters  about  the 
streets,  that  Professor  of  Harvard  Univer- 
sity, would  give  an  exhibition  of  the  manly  ait  of 
self-defence,  in  Lawrence  Hall,  admission  twenty-five 
cents.    On  inquiry,  I  learned  that  the  said  Professor 


8 

Tvas  a  private  teacher  in  his  hne  to  several  of  the 
undergraduates  in  that  respected  institution.  Thus 
we  see  that  the  title  of  Professor  does  not  necessa- 
rily carry  with  it  any  demand  for  respect  or  esteem. 
All  of  us  are  doubtless  fiimiliar,  in  our  individual 
experience,  with  plenty  of  titled  gentlemen  who 
never  secured  their  distinction  by  hard  study  or  hard 
work.  We  are  acquainted  with  many  governors  who 
never  ruled  a  state,  many  judges  who  never  sat  on 
the  bench,  and  many  generals  who  never  commanded 
an  army.  Society  is  very  liberal  in  its  bestowment  of 
titles;  it  is  very  liberal  to  us  in  giving  the  title  of 
Doctor"  to  so  many  of  us  who  have  no  written  parch- 
ment to  prove  that  we  have  earned  the  degree.  But 
perhaps  society  is  none  too  liberal,  if  we  accept  the 
Latin  proverb  ^^  Bonus  doctor  custos  populi,"  together 
with  Timothy  Peacock's  free  translation,  "A  bony 
doctor  is  a  cuss  to  the  people."  If,  then,  public  opin- 
ion is  such  in  regard  to  the  ownership  of  honorary 
degrees,  and  I  appeal  to  your  own  observation,  to 
confirm  what  I  have  said,  is  it  not  useless  to  waste 
much  thought  upon  what  some  call  the  standing  of 
the  profession  in  community. 

But,  in  making  this  remark,  I  wish  it  to  be  dis- 
tinctly understood  that  it  is  not  in  derogation  of 
dental  education,  or  the  education  of  dentists  to  the 
highest  possible  attainments.  But  it  seems  to  me 
that  many  writers  have  mistaken  the  object  to  be 
attained,  or,  at  least,  the  best  method  of  obtaining  it. 


Most  of  the  writers  who  have  written  upon  the  sub- 
ject, have  argued  that  the  door  through  which  one 
may  enter  the  dental  profession,  should  be  the  same 
that  leads  to  the  practice  of  general  medicine.  As- 
serting that  because  dentistry  is  a  branch  of  medi- 
cine, therefore  every  dentist  should  master  a  thor- 
ough course  in  all  departments  of  medicine.  Just 
as  those  who  make  a  specialty  of  the  diseases  of  the 
eye,  the  ear,  the  lungs  or  the  heart,  are  accustomed 
to  perfect  themselves  in  other  branches,  so  should 
those  who  only  make  a  specialty  of  the  diseases  of  the 
teeth.  Notwithstanding  the  brilliant  eulogies  which 
JVC  often  see,  on  their  importance  to  the  physical, 
mental  and  moral  constitution  of  the  whole  human 
race,  I  assert  that  the  teeth  have  a  sufficiently  less 
intimate  connection  with  the  diseases  of  the  other 
parts  of  the  body,  to  justify  a  less  extended  course 
of  medical  education.  .They  are  not  vital  organs, 
like  the  heart  or  the  lungs;  slight  diseases  of  which 
derange  the  healthy  action  of  the  whole  organism. 
^Neither  are  their  diseases  of  such  an  occult  nature 
as  to  require  long  and  continued  experience  in  order 
to  diagnose  them  correctly.  A  patient  with  some 
disease  of  the  lungs,  the  heart  or  the  kidneys,  goes 
to  a  specialist,  and  it  is  a  question  of  life  or  death  to 
him,  and  he  has  a  right  to  demand  the  highest  skill 
and  the  most  careful  training  that  can  be  acquired 
only  by  half  a  lifetime  of  practice  and  study,  because 
of  the  occult  nature  of  the  disease.     No  one  ever 


10 

looked  inside  a  living  lung  or  a  beating  heart,  or  any 
other  vital  organ.  Biit  we  can  examine  every  indi- 
vidual tooth  with  a  magnifying  glass  under  the  broad 
light  of  day,  and  easily  and  surely  determine  all  that 
may  be  necessary  for  the  well  being  of  our  patients. 
And  then  again  the  great  law  of  supply  and  demand 
will  determine  the  question  of  how  far  the  education 
of  dentists  shall  proceed  in  the  line  of  general  medi- 
cine, as  surely  as  it  determines  other  questions  of 
society. 

I  appeal  to  the  gentlemen  before  me  to  consider 
how  many  cases  of  oral  diseases  out  of  the  line  of 
every-day  practice,  of  which  there  was  any  necesj 
sity  for  them  to  treat,  or  which  could  not  better  be 
treated  by  the  general  practitioner,  or  at  the  hospitals. 

Most  of  us  who  have  been  in  practice  for  fifteen 
or  twenty  years,  have  seen  a  few  cases  of  disease  of 
the  antrum  of  Ilighmore,  n^rosis  of  the  maxillae  or 
some  malignant  tiunors  of  the  mouth,  etc.,  which 
might  have  been  treated,  if  we  had  chosen  to  assume 
the  responsibility.  But  when  we  reflect  how  many 
eases  have  to  be  treated  in  our  ordinary  routine  prac- 
tice before  we  become  experts,  I  think  a  conscientious 
dentist  will  send  these  extraordinary  cases  to  be 
treated  by  those  specialists  whose  extensive  experience 
makes  them  better  qualified  to  do  justice  to  their 
patients. 

I  sometimes  hear  the  treatment  of  difficult  cases 
related  by  dentists  in  our  society  meetings,  which  are 


11 

claimed  to  have  been  successfully  cured.  But,  as  for 
myself,  though  I  should  unhesitatingly  place  mj'self 
in  their  care  for  ^treatment  for  the  ordinary  diseases 
of  the  teeth,  yet  should  I  be  so  unfortunate  as  to  be 
afflicted  with  necrosis,  ranula,  or  any  of  the  malig- 
nant tumors  of  the  mouth,  I  should  much  prefer  to 
place  myself  in  the  hands  of  Bigelow  or  Garrettson, 
to  putting  myself  in  their  care.  The  cases  for  oral 
surgery  are  far  too  limited  in  number  to  afford  the 
dentists,  as  a  profession,  sufficient  experience  to  jus- 
tify them  in  assuming  the  treatment  of  difficult  cases. 
Even  among  the  medical  profession,  the  number  of 
specialists  is  so  small,  that  the  extent  of  their  med- 
ical education  is  a  question  of  but  comparatively  little 
interest  to  the  whole  profession.  'Not  one  in  a  hun- 
dred of  medical  graduates  ever  adopts  any  one  branch 
of  medicine  as  a  specialty,  and  there  are  probably 
not  five  hundred  in  all  the  United  States  who  confine 
themselves  in  their  practice  to  any  one  branch  of 
medicine,  while  there  are  probably  fifty  thousand 
M.  D.'s  in  general  practice. 

IS'ow  to  oblige  twelve  thousand  dentists  to  perfect 
themselves  in  general  medicine,  because  five  hundred 
out  of  fifty  thousand  M.  D.'s  have  chosen  to  devote 
themselves  to  particular  lines  of  practice,  is  drawing 
a  conclusion  to  which  not  a  large  number  of  the 
dental  profession  will  agree.  But  perhaps  some  one 
will  ask,  how  far  will  you  extend  our  professional 
education,  if  you  do  not  think  a  thorough  medical 


12 

course  is  necessary?  In  reply,  I  would  say  that  I 
think  that  if  the  programme  of  the  Harvard  Dental 
School,  the  Boston  Dental  College,  and  most  of  the 
dental  colleges  in  the  country,  if  faithfully  carried 
out,  will  be  amply  sufficient  to  furnish  the  dental 
student  with  all  the  professional  knowledge  neces- 
sary for  him  to  commence  a  professional  4ife.  It 
will  give  him  a  good  foundation  on  which  to  build 
up  a  reputation,  that  society  in  which  he  casts  his  lot 
will  respect  and  honor. 

I  have  said,  if  the  announcements  are  faithfully 
carried  out,  for  I  think  that  dental  schools,  as  well 
as  other  schools,  both  literary  and  scientific,  are  dis- 
posed to  put  out  their  announcements  somewhat 
as  the  different  political  parties  do  their  platforms, 
that  is,  for  the  mere  purpose  of  rivalry  in  sounding 
their  own  praises  before  the  public.  The  voter  is 
somewhat  deceived  as  to  the  one,  and  the  student  as 
to  the  other.  At  least  I  think  that  dental  students 
must  be  somewhat  more  than  average  scholars  to 
master  what  is  supposed  to  b«  taught  in  the  time 
consumed  in  a  course  of  lectures. 

What  then  is  wanting  in  order  that  the  profession 
of  dentistry  should  take  rank  with  that  of  law,  med- 
icine or  theology?  It  is  the  want  of  a  preliminary 
education  or  general  culture,  of  nearly  all  of  those 
who  offer  themselves  as  students  in  our  dental  col- 
leges. I  believe  there  is  not  one  of  the  dental  or 
medical  colleges  in  the  United  States  that  requires 


13 

any  standard  of  culture  previous  to  matriculation,  so 
that  many  of  those  who  rejoice  in  the  possession  of 
a  diploma  which  entitles  them  to  write  D.  D.  S.,  or 
perhaps  D.  M.  D.,  after  their  names,  are  deficient  in 
all  of  those  requirements  which  mark  the  distinction 
between  learned  and  unlearned  classes  of  society. 

In  all  of  our  academical  colleges,  a  previous  course 
of  study  of  several  years  duration  is  required,  to- 
gether with  a  severe  examination  to  test  their  ac- 
quirements before  they  are  admitted  to  enroll  them- 
selves as  candidates  for  a  degree,  to  be  obtained  after 
further  years  of  hard  toil. 

But  the  merest  blockhead  who  has  failed  to  get 
his  promotion  through  our  grammar  schools  has  only 
to  offer  himself  with  the  requisite  fee  in  his  pocket, 
to  obtain  entrance  into  any  of  our  dental  schools. 
Not  that  I  would  affirm  that  many  such  do  enter,  but 
that  there  are  no  rules  to  keep  out  those  who  may 
choose  to  enter,  much  to  the  injury  of  the  reputation 
of  a  professional  degree.  How  much  a  man's  pro- 
fessional success  depends  upon  how  much  he  knows 
outside  of  his  profession,  is  rarely  taken  into  account. 
If  you  will  reflect  on  what  your  own  judgments  are 
based  in  your  opinion  of  your  personal  acquaintances 
among  members  of  other  professions,  you  will  find 
that  their  professional  acquirements  have  had  very 
little  influence.  I  think  I  am  right  when  I  assert 
that  a  man's  professional  reputation  outside  of  his 
own  profession,  that  is,  among  society  at  large,  de- 


14 

pends  more  upon  his  general  culture,  than  upon  his 
technical  knowledge.  If  you  enter  into  conversa- 
tion with  a  cultivated  stranger,  and  he  finds  you  well 
versed  in  the  various  branches  of  knowledge  which 
he  himself  understands,  he  will  take  it  for  granted 
that  you  are  thoroughly  educated  in  what  you  pro- 
fess to  know.  Indeed,  it  is  his  only*means  of  judging 
of  your  professional  skill,  by  taking  your  measure 
when  you  can  meet  on  common  ground. 

It  is  a  well  known  rule  of  etiquette,  not  to  "talk 
shop"  when  in  general  company;  and  any  possessor 
of  a  degree,  who  can  talk  of  nothing  but  what  per- 
tains to  that  degree,  will  be  regarded  as  an  igno- 
Famus,  even  by  a  public  as  ignorant  as  himself.  It 
is  related  of  Curran,  the  noted  Wsh  lawyer,  that  he 
boasted  that  he  could  tell  any  man's  occupation  by  a 
fifteen  minutes  conversation  with  him.  One  day  a 
gentleman  ^as  introduced  to  him  by  a  fiiend,  who 
privately  requested  him  to  ascertain  what  business 
the  gentleman  followed.  Curran  entered  into  con- 
versation with  him,  and  found  him  a  cultured  and 
entertaining  companion,  and  for  a  long  time  was  baf- 
fled in  his  attempts  to  attain  his  object.  At  length 
the  gentleman  mentioned  some  transaction,  which, 
as  he  expressed  it,  "had  taken  place  on  the  skirts  of 
Flanders."  "Sir,"  exclaimed  Curran,  "you  are  a 
tailor;  a  gentleman  of  any  other  occupation  would 
have  said  borders,  instead  of  skirts."  Curran's  sur- 
mise was  correct. 


15 

Now,  it  may  not  be  necessary  that  we  should  all 
be  so  free  from  professional  language  that  we  should 
be  able  to  baffle  a  skilled  lawyer  in  his  attempts  to 
ascertain  our  occupation.  Still,  the  less  we  are 
obliged  to  draw  on  our  professional  resources  in  our 
contact  with  the  public^  the  better  it  will  be  for  our 
professional  reputation.  I  have  shown  in  the  first 
part  of  this  paper,  that  society  will  not  give  us  much 
credit  merely  because  we  belong  to  a  certain  class  or 
brotherhood.  Still,  every  member  may  honor  that 
class  or  brotherhood  by  the  reputation  which  he 
builds  for  himself  as  a  man  in  the  community  where 
he  resides.  Everett,  in  one  of  his  brilliant  lectures, 
has  said,  "  man  has  three  teachers ;  the  schoolmaster, 
himself  and  his  neighbor. 

The  instructions  of  the  first  two  commence  to- 
gether; and  long  after  the  functions  of  the  school- 
master have  been  discharged,  the  duties  of  the  last 
two  go  on  together;  and  what  they  efiect  is  vastly 
more  important  than  the  work  of  the  teacher,  if  esti- 
mated by  the  amount  of  knowledge  self  acquired,  or 
caught  by  the  collision  or  sympathy  of  other  minds, 
compared  with  that  which  is  directly  imparted  by  the 
schoolmaster  in  the  morning  of  life.  In  fact,  what 
we  learn  in  school  or  at  college,  is  but  the  foundation 
of  the  great  work  of  self  instruction  and  mutual 
instruction,  with  which  the  real  education  of  life 
begins,  when  what  is  commonly  called  the  education 
is  finished. 


16 

The  daily  intercourse  of  cultivated  minds,  the 
emulous  exertions  of  the  fellow  votaries  of  knowl- 
edge, controversy,  the  inspiring  sympathy  of  a 
curious  and  intelligent  public,  unite  in  putting  each 
individual  intellect  to  the  stretch  of  its  capacity.  A 
hint,  a  proposition,  an  inquiry,  proceeding  from  one 
mind,  awakens  new  trains  of  thought  in  a  kindred 
mind  surveying  the  question  from  other  points  of 
view,  and  with  other  habits  and  resources  of  illustra- 
tion; and  thus  truth  is  constantly  multiplied  and 
propagated,  by  the  mutual  action  and  reaction  of 
thousands  engaged  in  its  pursuit." 

"  Men  are  sometimes  born  rich,  but  never  learned," 
and  probably  none  here  have  been  favored  with  the 
fortunate  possibility,  so  that  we  are  obliged  t6  secure 
both  prizes  by  our  own  unaided  exertions.  But  be 
careful  that  you  do  not  let  the  pressure  of  daily  toil 
to  earn  your  daily  bread  absorb  so  much  of  your 
energy  that  none  be  left  to  spend  on  improving  your 
minds,  that  your  minds  and  your  bodies  may  not 
grow  old  and  feeble  together. 

In  one  important  particular  our  profession  has  a 
great  advantage  over  other  occupations.  The  rou- 
tine of  our  profession  does  not  require  that  intel- 
lectual strain,  which  tires  out  the  mind  as  well  as  the 
body,  as  is  the  case  in  many  other  employments. 

Physically,  I  think  we  may  be  classed  among  the 
hardest  worked  laboring  men  of  this  community. 
The  unnatural  position  in  which  we  are  compelled  to 


17 

work,  the  nervous  strain  which  we  as  well  as  our 
patients  have  to  endure,  puts  our  physical  ability  to 
the  severest  test.  But  then  at  the  end  of  hard  days' 
work  the  brain  is  not  tired,  and  several  hours  appli- 
cation to  study  or  general  reading,  will  not  overtask 
the  whole  of  our  compound  nature.  The  immense 
amount  of  intellectual  work  that  was  done  by  Hugh 
Miller,  or  Franklin,  and  many  other  laboring  men 
like  them,  can  only  be  explained  on  the  hypothesis 
that  their  daily  occupations  did  not  fatigue  the  mind, 
so  that  after  their  daily  toil  was  over,  the  brain  was 
still  able  to  do  its  full  quota  of  work.  If,  then,  we 
are  not  afllicted  with  chronic  mental  laziness,  every 
dentist,  whatever  may  be  his  deficiencies  when  he 
first  enters  upon  his  profession,  should  be  in  a  few 
years  a  well  informed  man  in  ordinary  branches  of 
science  and  literature,  and  equal  to  any  emergency 
in  which  he  may  be  placed,  in  all  the  duties  of  social 
society  and  American  citizenship.  Many  of  us  boast 
with  what  success  we  can  obviate  the  deformities  of 
nature,  in  correcting  the  irregularities  of  the  teeth; 
how  we  can  restore  their  beauty  when  decay  has 
blackened  and  marred  their  original  purity.  Inas- 
much then  as  we  are  the  architects  of  ourselves, 
would  it  not  be  well  to  try  how  much  we  can  improve 
ourselves  in  our  mental  and  moral  nature. 

Cultivate  gentleness  towards  our  patients.  Re- 
member that  we  are  operating  upon  a  cushion  of 
nerves,  every  touch  of  which,  either  through  mental 


18  * 

or  actual  suffering,  sends  a  thrill  of  pain  throughout 
the  whole  nei-vous  organism.  Cultivate  yourselves 
intellectually,  in  order  that  you  may  bring  a  well 
trained  mind  to  bear,  not  only  upon  all  the  duties  of 
your  profession,  but  also  that  you  may  become  the 
equals  of  the  educated  men  in  the*  society  in  which 
you  move.  Cultivate  yourselves  morally,  in  order 
that  your  patients  may  place  a  well  deserved  confi- 
dence in  your  integrity,  in  order  that  community 
may  be  the  better  for  your  having  lived  in  it;  in 
order  that  when  you  shall  pass  to  the  next  stage  of 
existence,  you  will  have  so  used  the  talent  with 
which  your  Maker  has  entrusted  you,  that  it  may  not 
be  taken  from  you,  and  you  be  left  poor  and  naked. 


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